Juventus' Zaza joins West Ham on €5M loan with €20M obligation to buy
To see a list of completed deals in the summer window thus far, visit theScore's Premier League transfer tracker.
At long last, West Ham United found a striker.
On Sunday, Simone Zaza joined West Ham on a season-long loan from Juventus, bringing an end to a search that included a myriad of European football's top forwards.
The initial temporary stay comes at a cost of €5 million (£4.25 million), with an obligation to buy for €20 million (£17 million) should he meet a certain number of first-team appearances. Additional add-ons are then written into the deal if it's made permanent that could raise it by a further €3 million (£2.56 million).
Before the latter stipulations he would already trump the previous club-record £20.5-million fee paid for Andre Ayew earlier this summer.
"I want to thank everyone for welcoming me including the fans and everyone at the club," said Zaza. "I wanted to start a new experience and I feel this is the right choice for me."
He added, "I want to become a better player and I know I can do that at West Ham."
(Courtesy: @WestHamUtd)
It was nearly two months ago that Zaza skied a penalty kick at Euro 2016, sending the ball into orbit as Italy fell to Germany in a shootout that featured nine shots from each national team. He was ridiculed for how many steps he took in the run-up to the shot, which, by some counts, was more than he took during the fixture as a 121st-minute substitute.
Prior to Euro 2016, Zaza struggled to earn minutes at Juventus, as he only tallied 19 appearances during the 2015-16 Serie A season, 14 of which were as a substitute. He also had a hard time replicating his form from the prior campaign at Sassuolo, where he scored 11 goals though 31 appearances.
In Stratford, Zaza's acquisition marks the possible conclusion to manager Slaven Bilic's protracted striker hunt. Lucrative moves for Olympique Lyonnais' Alexandre Lacazette and Carlos Bacca of AC Milan broke down, and then the aforementioned Ayew fell to a thigh issue just 35 minutes into his Irons' debut, incurring a four-month layoff.
This left the goalscoring burden to the oft-injured Andy Carroll, wantaway Senegalese Diafra Sakho, and Enner Valencia, who has hardly been prolific in English football.
West Ham travels to Manchester City on Sunday, although it is unknown whether the paperwork was ratified in time to clear him for the tie. The Premier League then takes a break while international teams link up, with the Irons returning when they host Watford on Sept. 10.